Musing of a Middle Aged Author

Tag Archives: testing

I Chronicles 29:10-12 (KJV), “Wherefore David blessed the LORD before all the congregation: and David said, Blessed be thou, LORD God of Israel our father, for ever and ever. Thine, O LORD, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O LORD, and thou art exalted as head above all. Both riches and honour come of thee, and thou reignest over all; and in thine hand is power and might; and in thine hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto all. Now therefore, our God, we thank thee, and praise thy glorious name.”

Sometimes life throws us a curve ball or Satan gives us a sucker punch. There are even times that we have gotten ourselves in a fine mess and things aren’t looking so good. It’s easy to start the pity party, to seclude ourselves from others, or worse find everyone we know and whine and complain about how rotten our lives are. I’ve done it. It’s our “hour of flesh” that sometimes lasts days. What a way to glorify God, Huh? Who wants to be part of a kingdom whose subjects are not happy campers. By our self indulged pity parties we are showing our lack of faith in He Who IS Faithful…

So what is a brother or sister to do in these times? Well, first if you have already started the party I just mentioned, repent! Then, if you don’t have anything nice to say, shut up! Take command over your mouth and don’t let it say another thing that may tarnish God’s reputation. Finally, think on His goodness. The Bible is full of scriptures that rehearse and meditate, sing about and praise Him. Find then and get them past your head into your heart.

Psalms 103:2-4 (ESV), “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, ho heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”

Remind yourself that you can bring your problems to God, yes, even that mess we made ourselves. He will help. He promised He would and He always keeps His promise. It may not be when we want or even how we want, but He always comes through. He’s our Father, through the shed blood of Christ we have been given the privilege to come boldly into His throne room just as our children never have to fear coming to us for help.

Psalms 46:1 (Aramaic Bible In Plain English), “Our God is our strong house of refuge, and he is found to us our helper always in times of trouble.”

Hebrews 4:16 (NIV), “Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

One of the most important things we can do when things don’t look good, is change what we are looking at. Look to Him, look at Him, look at His creation, and then praise Him for who He is, what He has done, and what He is doing in your situation right now.

Psalm 113 (NLV), “Praise the Lord! Yes, give praise, O servants of the Lord. Praise the name of the Lord!
Blessed be the name of the Lord now and forever. Everywhere—from east to west—praise the name of the Lord. For the Lord is high above the nations; his glory is higher than the heavens. Who can be compared with the Lord our God, who is enthroned on high? He stoops to look down on heaven and on earth. He lifts the poor from the dust and the needy from the garbage dump. He sets them among princes, even the princes of his own people! He gives the childless woman a family, making her a happy mother. Praise the Lord!”

All bad days aren’t the same. Sometimes our circumstances are rotten, but we come out smelling like a rose. We keep a good attitude and we are able to just keep going. My husband likes to say that is like “water off a ducks back.” Then, there are those bad days where we “lose it,” our minds, our tempers… maybe even our witness.
We’ve all had one, Ok, maybe a few more than that. Does that mean we have messed up the whole faith thing? Do we have to go back to “start?” What kind of punishment does God have worked out for us?

Let me remind you of just a few who had bad days:
Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers. Then was falsely accused and sent to prison.
Moses spent over forty years leading a bunch of whiny, complaining, hard hearted people.
David had a king trying to kill him several times, sinned with Bathsheba, and had quite a few bad days.
Paul persecuted the early Church, was beaten, thrown into prison, shipwrecked (twice), and also had more than his fare share of bad days.
Peter denied Christ, even after Jesus warned him.
Jesus had some. He was rejected by His own people, He was mocked, ridiculed, the religious leaders sought to kill Him, and we haven’t even mentioned Gethsemane, or Calvary.

James 1:2-3 (NIV), “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

I think it is safe to say that a bad day constitutes a “trial.” It is trying to live in this fallen world. Sometimes our messes are of our own making, and sometimes we just land in them due to no fault of our own. Either way, count it joy. Don’t live there. Don’t glorify the circumstances. Look to God. Repent if needed and move on. Find out what God has to say about it. So you lost it, so what! Those people mentioned above did too.

Joseph saved all of Egypt and his whole family from starvation.
Moses spoke with God face to face.
God called David “a man after My own heart,” and he was given the design of the temple.
Paul wrote most of the New Testament.
Peter brought salvation to the Gentiles and was a leader in the early Church.
And Jesus, well, He fulfilled the law, saved the whole world…you know, all that wonderful stuff!

James told us that that we will mature when our faith is tested.
Don’t let a bad day dictate your future! Move on, move ahead. Don’t remember them. God doesn’t.

Philippians 1:20-26 (NAS) “according to my earnest expectation and hope, that I will not be put to shame in anything, but that with all boldness, Christ will even now, as always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. But if I am to live on in the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me; and I do not know which to choose. But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better ; yet to remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your sake. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith, so that your proud confidence in me may abound in Christ Jesus through my coming to you again.”

Paul is clear. For him to die and be home with Jesus was a great gain. But staying here meant working towards a goal, serving Christ, and saving others from an eternity in hell. It was more necessary, for the sake of others, for him to remain and continue in what God had called him to do.

I strongly believe we are living in the last days.
I Thessalonians 5:1-11 (NKJV) “But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him.”

As children of the light, we can see the timeline is quickly approaching the second coming of Jesus. But we don’t live in fear; we do continue to be ‘citizens’ of heaven. Philippians 1:27-30 (NIV) says, “Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in the one Spirit, striving together as one for the faith of the gospel without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you. This is a sign to them that they will be destroyed, but that you will be saved—and that by God. For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him, since you are going through the same struggle you saw I had, and now hear that I still have. Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing.” We keep doing what we are supposed to. We occupy until He comes. We go to work, raise our families and continue to live worthy. Most importantly, we be the ‘salt’ God calls us to be. We salt the earth, make it palatable, preserve life, and season God’s word. We purify the atmosphere we live in. God forbid we leave so many behind to die in their sins.

So some of us may die before Christ’s return. Some of us may get to be caught up in the air with Him. But all of us should be living like He is calling us home today.

Don’t waste a single opportunity!

II Timothy 4:1-8 (NIV) “In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry. For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.”

Matthew 24:14 (NASB) “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.”

Job 23:10-11
“But He knows the way that I take [He has concern for it, appreciates and pays attention to it]. When He has tried me, I shall come for the as refined gold [pure and luminous]. My foot has held fast to His steps, His ways have I kept and not turned aside.”

Poor Job. There his is minding his own business, being a witness, doing good, praying for his kids…and then the enemy enters the scene. With God’s permission! His world tumbles down around him, literally. He is tried and refined in a way that most of us wouldn’t wish on our worst enemies.

Why did God allow it? (He is even the one who pointed out Job to the enemy to begin with!) Job figured it out. After self pity, after anger, after getting rotten advice and false counsel from three so-called-friends.

Only the fire can refine precious metal. Only great pressure can make a precious stone.

We go through what feels like Hell. There is a saying, that I particularly like, and have quoted, “You may have to walk through the valley of death, but you don’t have to set up camp there!”

What would “setting up camp” entail? Self pity, anger at God, SITTING DOWN, or just plain giving up. Don’t drive in a single tent stake. Job said he stayed on the path, that means he kept moving forward. Command your feet to hold fast to HIS path. It leads to life, to righteousness, to Love. Don’t let Satan distract you. I know, Job went through big stuff! But ultimately it was all just meant for a distraction. He was trying to force Job to take his eyes off of God, and put them on his circumstances.

We live in a fallen world, with a real enemy seeking who he may devour. Bad stuff happens to good people. But continue with Jobs story. His ending was better than his beginning. He came out better! Stronger! And he came out Praising God!

When you come out of the other side, when the valley is behind you, tell someone!

Are you going through something hard?
Here are some resources I found helpful (after the bible)
“What To Do When Everything Falls Apart” by Van Crouch
“Throw Yourself a Party” by David Duell
“The In-Between” by Jeff Goins